Museum has lots happening

The Sooke Region Museum is initiating some new programs this summer which will provide some entertainment for kids.

Summer camp at the museum will come in two forms, a week-long camp or one-half day camps.

“It is something I’ve wanted to do since I came back,” said Lee Boyko, Executive Director of the Sooke Region Museum. “We’ll test it out this year and see how it works.”

The idea is for a week-long camp from July 21 to 25, and half days on most Mondays in July and August. The camps will have a lot of activities for kids such as photography, the old fashioned way with a dark room; a food day where kids will pick berries and make bannock; arts and crafts such as paper making. It all takes place on site or just a short walk away.

“We have a combination of volunteers and staff who will work on this,” said Boyko.

There’s lots more planned for the summer months.

The museum’s annual open house and barbecue takes place on June 22 and on July 19 it’s Leechtown Day. The museum is working with other community groups to make this a fun event for kids and adults alike.

Gold panning, kids games, music, contests,and for the adults a taste from Spinnakers Brew Pub. The Sooke Harbour Players will perform a skit and people will be in period costume at the museum. There will be Leechtown beef a.k.a. All Sooke Day beef, if anyone remembers what that was.

An exhibit of the historic Flowline will be featured as well for nine weeks in August.

Volunteers are being sought for all of the activities with the exception of the summer camps. If anyone would like to be involved in the night markets, the 150th Leechtown anniversary, the annual open house of the flow line opening, contact Lee Boyko at: director@sookeregionmusuem.com.

There are eight new exhibits and refurbished older ones at the museum, many of them done by Collections and Exhibits Manager Brianna Shambrook.

“We’ve done a lot of work getting the space fixed up,” said Shambrook. “I’m looking forward to doing more programs.”

Shambrook is from Sooke and studied classic history at Acadia University in Nova Scotia. She loves the design aspect of curating.

Shambrook is in leading the charge on a major exhibition this summer to celebrate the tourism industry. The exhibit, Accommodating the World, will feature historically significant establishments such as: the Belvedere Hotel, Deer Trails, Mugford House, 17 Mile House and the Sooke Harbour House.

The museum will be using some of the 14,000 artifacts from their collection for the exhibit and is asking the public to display any of their unique objects they may have from some of those establishments. They can be menus, pictures, furniture, or stories.

“The ultimate goal since I started is to involve the community in as many ways as I can. I prefer the summer exhibit Accommodating the World to be a community event.”

Anyone interested in sharing their objects and knowledge relevant to this exhibit contact Brianna Shambrook, exhibits manager, at 250-642-6351 or email: musasst@sookeregionmuseum.com.

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